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    The surnameClark

    An English occupational surname, the 27th most common in the United States.

    Pronounced /klɑː(ɹ)k/ 1 syllable Soundex C462 Also a first name

    Clark: #27 of 162,253 surnames in the 2010 US Census #1Smith#160,975Doriott#10Martinez#100Jimenez#1,000Archer#10,001Dubon Clark #27, 562,679 people Clark: #27 of 162,253 surnames in the 2010 US Census #1Smith#160,975Doriott#1,000Archer Clark #27, 562,679 people
    Every surname held by 100 or more people in the 2010 US Census, most common on the left (162,253 in all). Clark is more common than 99.9% of them.

    Origin

    English origin

    From Old English clerc (“clergyman; learned man”), whence also clerk.

    Clark is an occupational surname: named after the work an ancestor did.

    One of 1,446 English surnames on this site.

    Origin from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0).

    How common it is

    2010 US Census

    There were 562,679 people named Clark in the United States in 2010, about 1 in every 549 Americans. That is up 2.6% since 2000, when the Census counted 548,369.

    #27
    rank among US surnames
    562,679
    people in 2010
    191
    per 100,000 Americans
    +2.6%
    change since 2000 (was #25)
    RankSurnamePeople1 in
    #18Moore724,374426
    #19Jackson708,099436
    #20Martin702,625439
    #21Lee693,023446
    #22Perez681,645453
    #23Thompson664,644465
    #24White660,491467

    Who is named Clark

    Race and Hispanic origin as people reported it in the 2010 Census

    75% of people named Clark identified as white (not Hispanic), 19% as Black (not Hispanic) and 2.6% as Hispanic or Latino (any race).

    • White (not Hispanic) 75%
    • Black (not Hispanic) 19%
    • Hispanic or Latino (any race) 2.6%
    • Two or more races 2.2%
    • American Indian and Alaska Native 1.0%
    • Asian and Pacific Islander 0.5%

    Compare: most common surnames among white Americans.

    Famous Clarks

    178 notable people on Wikidata, most written-about first

    • Blake Clark
      American stand-up comedian (born 1946)
    • Joe Clark
      16th Prime Minister of Canada, born 1939
    • Ciaran Clark
      Association football player, born 1989
    • William Clark
      American explorer, soldier, Indian agent, and territorial governor (1770-1838)
    • John Bates Clark
      American neoclassical economist (1847–1938)
    • Caitlin Clark
      American basketball player (born 2002)
    • Dick Clark
      American radio and television personality (1929–2012)
    • Ellery Harding Clark
      American track and field athlete (1874–1949)
    • Morfydd Clark
      British actress, born 1989
    • Candy Clark
      American film and television actress, born 1947
    • Ricardo Clark
      American soccer player, born 1983
    • Gary Clark Jr.
      American blues musician, born 1984

    Notable Clarks come mostly from the United States (141), the United Kingdom (15) and Australia (10).

    Spellings and sound-alikes

    Useful when a record has your ancestor under another spelling

    Variant spellings

    Surnames that sound like Clark

    Clark has the Soundex code C462, the code US census indexes have used since the 1930s. Every surname with code C462.

    Other English surnames

    All 1,446 English surnames

    Questions

    Where does the surname Clark come from?
    From Old English clerc (“clergyman; learned man”), whence also clerk.
    How common is the surname Clark?
    562,679 people in the United States had the surname Clark in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 549 Americans. It ranked 27th of 162,253 surnames.
    What ethnicity is the surname Clark?
    In the 2010 Census, 75% of people named Clark identified as white (not Hispanic), and 19% as Black (not Hispanic).
    Who is the most famous person named Clark?
    Blake Clark, American stand-up comedian (born 1946), followed by Joe Clark.